Mark Fan

Awareness Through Movement® Teacher

Mark is a human factors engineer and patient safety researcher with a passion for understanding high reliability performance. His journey has led him through studies in the Russian Martial art (Systema), Somatic Experiencing, Olympic lifting, dance and the Feldenkrais method. Mark's current interest is in how we regulate emotions, and deeply appreciates the compassionate and non-judgmental view that Awareness through Movement offers to anyone seeking to better understand themselves.

Meredith Markow

5 Lines Fitness Instructor and Awareness Through Movement® Teacher

Meredith is a Waldorf teacher/Waldorf teacher trainer, Certified Enneagram Teacher, Somatic Inquiries Facilitator and Zen Buddhist who, after a lifelong struggle to find any joy at all in movement modalities (not for lack of having tried several well-known ones), never imagined that she would be teaching a movement-based method like Feldenkrais. Nevertheless, in recent years she has discovered the way Awareness Through Movement can help people change such seemingly ingrained patterns in the self-image. She is especially interested in the method's application as a way to redefine and improve chronic impairment and limitations even when these may be associated with diagnoses of chronic illness.

Paola Dell'Orto

Awareness Through Movement® Teacher and ATM en español (Autoconciencia a través del movimiento®) Teacher

Paola is a biochemist and has spent her entire life searching for the whys of things. She encountered Feldenkrais from theory and was in awe at the results in practice. Paola lives in Chile, teaches in Spanish and marvels every day at the robustness of Feldenkrais as she seeks to understand the scientific basis of why it works. She is particularly interested in the effects of the practice to counteract the aging process.

Robert Valdez Jr.

Robert Valdez, affectionately known as “Buddy”, has been a life-long mover. Robert is a Juilliard graduate, professional dancer, yogi, martial arts enthusiast, and all around movement junkie. The Feldenkrais Method® has continued to inform, build, and enhance his passion for movement. He is honored to join people on their self-improvement and movement journeys.

Shannon Lee Jones

Awareness Through Movement® Teacher

Shannon currently teaches at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She is an Associate Professor of Dance where she teaches the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method Awareness Through Movement.

Before moving to Boston in 2005, Shannon lived in New York City, where she worked professionally as an actress, appearing on Broadway in the original La Cage aux Folles at the Palace Theatre. National tours include Hello Dolly with Carol Channing, first national La Cage aux Folles, Funny Girl with Juliet Prowse and the European tour of A Chorus Line (Cassie). She was affiliated with the Drama Desk Award-winning Barrow Group Theatre in New York City, starting in 1991. There, she would produce, direct, act, and teach for their Tops educational program, in association with the New York Board of Education. Regionally, she has performed at The MUNY, Theater Under the Stars (Atlanta), Long Wharf Theatre (New Haven, CT), Barrington Stage (MA), Riverside Theater (Florida), North Shore Music Theatre, Arts Center of Coastal Carolina (SC), Gateway Playhouse (NY), Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, and Ocean State Theatre (Rhode Island). Boston theaters where she has performed include Wheelock Theatre, Lyric Stage Company, Gloucester Stage, New Rep, Greater Boston Theater, Reagle Music Theatre, and Foothills Theater. In Television, she has worked on All My Children, Guiding Light, Irving Berlin’s 100 Birthday at Carnegie Hall and Saturday Night Live.

Shannon discovered the Alexander Technique in 2003. She was experiencing chronic back pain as a result of her dancing career. The pain became so severe that she considered the possibility of no longer being able to work in theater. Eventually, she went to see a back surgeon at Beth Israel Hospital in New York who told her about Alexander Technique. The work would forever change her life and allow her to perform again, pain free. She became committed to sharing the work, especially with young dancers.

When the pandemic came she was reading to go deeper with her work and begin taking Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement lessons. Finding the lessons most rewarding and a wonderful creative way to learn how your are design she decided to take the Feldenkrais Method ATM teacher Training Program.

Shannon is dedicated to keep learning more about the power of the body/mind connection and sharing the work along the way.